PASSERES FRINGILLIDjE EMBERIZA. 155 



THE BLACK-THROATED BUNTING. . 



EMBERIZA AMERICANA. 

 PLATE XLIX. FIG. 3 (Male). 

 (STATE COLLECTION.) 



Emberiza amerkana, Gmelin. Black-throated Bunting, Pennant, Arct. Zool. Vol. 2, p. 363, pi. 17 (male). 

 Calandra pratensis, May-bird. BaRTRAM, p. 291. 



E. americana. Wilson, Orn. Vol. 1, p. 51, pi. 3, fig. 2 (male). 



F. (SpizaJ id. Bonaparte, Annals Lyceum N. Y. Vol. 2, p. 107. Nuttall, Manual Ornith. Vol. 1, p. 461. 



Audubon, folio, pi. 384. 

 E. id. Kirtland, Zool. Ohio, p. 183. Audubon, B. of A. Vol. 3, p. 58, pi. 156 (male and female). 

 E. id. Giraud, Birds of Long island, p. 100. 



Characteristics. Breast, line over the eye, and at the base of. the bill, yellow. Chin 

 white ; throat with a black patch ; wing-coverts, bright bay. Female : 

 throat without the black patch. Length, 65 inches. 



Description. Bill stout, distinctly notched near the tip : edges of the lower mandible 

 narrowed in. First quill slightly longest. Tail 1'5 longer than the tips of the closed wings, 

 emarginate, with somewhat pointed feathers. Hind toe and claw 0'7. 



Color. Head olive brown, with black or dusky streaks : back of the sides and neck slate- 

 blue ; interscapular region brown, streaked with black ; rump brownish olive. Beneath, the 

 black throat often spotted with white, and occasionally one or more black spots on the breast. 

 Flanks light brown. Shoulder and base of the under wing-coverts sulphur-yellow; the smaller 

 wing-coverts bright bay or chesnut. Chin white. Female, with merely a tinge of yellow 

 over and beneath the eye, on the breast, shoulder, and under wing-coverts. Chin buff : a 

 few narrow dark lines on the breast, but these are often wanting. Head and neck brown 

 varied with black. 



Length, 6'0-7'5. Alar extent, 10'0-11'0. 



The Black'throated Bunting reaches this State from the South about the middle or latter 

 end of May, and rarely advances farther east than Massachusetts. It breeds in every part of 

 the Atlantic and Western districts. Its nest is on the ground, containing about five dusky 

 white eggs with brown spots and lines. Its food consists of caterpillars, beetles, the canker- 

 worm and other destructive insects. In winter it feeds probably on the harder seeds, for 

 which its robust bill appears well adapted. It appears well worthy to be classed under a 

 separate genus, allied in some respects both to Plectrophanes and Coccothraustes. 

 Charles Bonaparte has suggested the name of Euspiza, but I can no where find its charac- 

 ters. This species has been observed in Texas and Mexico. 



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